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Humboldt and the Modern German University

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Humboldt and the Modern German University 4 The rebirth of the university In the midst of destruction, in some marvellous way, intellectual life sprouted. A small but influential group dedicated themselves to debate, critique, and soul-searching during the early post-war years. Newly written drama was produced in cold basements; newly produced films were shown in mouldy tents. Although this cultural vitality eventually faded, a foundation for post-war Germany was laid here.1 The cultural vigour of the first post-war years astonished many thinkers who had been forced to leave Nazi Germany. Theodor W. Adorno had spent the war years in exile in America, but returned to his native country at the end of the 1940s. He had expected to encounter listlessness and cynicism. Instead he saw how young Germans thirsted for art, philosophy, and Bildung. In a letter to Thomas Mann, Adorno compared the atmosphere to that which had characterised the period following the Napoleonic wars. Then as now, he noted, the students discussed logical and metaphysical problems with the same gravity that other generations had discussed politics. In a way this was not strange: if the German nation had a future, it was not as a political great power but as an intellectual one. In their present situation, the Germans were – with an echo 1 Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Vor dem Vorhang: Das geistige Berlin 1945–1948 (Munich, 1995); Jörg Echternkamp, Nach dem Krieg: Alltagsnot, Neuorien- tierung und die Last der Vergangenheit 1945–1949 (Zürich, 2003). Parts of this chapter build upon earlier texts of mine: Johan Östling, ‘The Regeneration of the University: Karl Jaspers and the Humboldtian Tradition in the Wake of the Second World War’, in The Humboldtian Tradition, ed. by Josephson, Karlsohn, & Östling, and Johan Östling, ‘The Swansong of the Mandarins: Humboldt’s Idea of the University in Early Post-War Germany’, Modern Intellectual History, 13:2 (2016), 387–415. Johan Östling - 9789198376814 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/02/2021 08:27:22AM via free access The rebirth of the university 85 from Hölderlin – ‘tatenarm und gedankenvoll’ (‘poor in deeds, rich in thoughts’).2 It was not only Adorno who experienced the thirst for and the joy of knowledge among the young Germans. Legal historian Helmut Coing spoke of the deep, sincere sense of happiness that unfolded during this time. In spite of the poverty, there was an openness to everything connected with science and scholarship, art, and music, he remembered. Eduard Spranger, the philosopher and educationalist, praised the students he met in the late 1940s. They were the most earnest and dedicated he had ever known.3 The university was one of the first societal institutions that were allowed to resume their activities after the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945. Much had changed, however. In a very tangible sense, the outcome of the Second World War had transformed the academic terrain. The loss of the eastern territories meant that venerated universities such as Königsberg and Breslau ceased to be German educational institutions. In the Soviet zone a rapid reshaping of the universities, with clear ideological overtones, was immediately begun. Over the next forty years, well-established German educational institutions such as Berlin, Greifswald, Halle, Jena, and Leipzig came under Communist control.4 2 Wolf Lepenies, The Seduction of Culture in German History (Princeton, 2006), pp. 134–38; Theodor W. Adorno & Thomas Mann, Briefwechsel 1943–1955, ed. by Christoph Gödde & Thomas Specher (Frankfurt am Main, 2002), pp. 46–47. 3 Christoph Führ, ‘Zur deutschen Bildungsgeschichte seit 1945’, in Handbuch der deutschen Bildungsgeschichte: 1945 bis zur Gegenwart: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, ed. by Christoph Führ & Carl-Ludwig Furck (Munich, 1998), pp. 6–7. 4 Ralph Jessen, ‘Zwischen Bildungspathos und Spezialistentum: Werthaltungen und Identitätskonstruktionen der Hochschullehrerschaft in West- und Ost- deutschland nach 1945’, in Eliten im Sozialismus: Beiträge zur Sozialgeschichte der DDR, ed. by Peter Hübner (Cologne, Weimar and Vienna, 1999); Connelly, Captive University; Hochschuloffiziere und Wiederaufbau des Hochschulwesens in Deutschland 1945–1949: Die sowjetische Besatzungszone, ed. by Manfred Heinemann (Berlin, 2000); Norman M. Naimark, The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949 (Cambridge, MA, 1995), pp. 440–48; Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk, Geist im Dienste der Macht: Hochschulpolitik in der SBZ/DDR 1945 bis 1961 (Berlin, 2003); Gunilla- Friederike Budde, Frauen der Intelligenz: Akademikerinnen in der DDR 1945 bis 1975 (Göttingen, 2003). Johan Östling - 9789198376814 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/02/2021 08:27:22AM via free access 86 Humboldt and the modern German university 7 The war-damaged Berlin university in 1945 In the west, much of the old system seemed to endure. Nazism, the Second World War, the defeat, and the occupation did not alter the basic order that had been established during the nineteenth century. The organisation, the faculty divisions, the internal hierarchy of subjects – in all essentials, the structure remained the same. Nevertheless, people also faced a number of significant challenges in the western zones of occupation. Several comparatively small university towns, such as Marburg, Göttingen, and Tübingen, were largely spared material destruction; but in many cities, including Hamburg, Cologne, and Frankfurt am Main, lecture halls, libraries, and laboratories had been seriously damaged. Lectures had to be given in temporary facilities, book collections were severely depleted, and access to technical equipment was woefully inadequate.5 Getting the academic machinery up and running was not simply a matter of clearing away concrete obstacles and solving practical problems. The university and its future role in German society stood out as a vital issue to many more people than the professors. Dolf 5 Wolbring, Trümmerfeld, pp. 14–19. The literature on individual universities is quite extensive today. See, for instance, Steven P. Remy, The Heidelberg Myth, as well as Die Universität München im Dritten Reich: Aufsätze, ed. by Elisabeth Kraus, 2 vols (Munich, 2006–2008). For an overview, see Wolbring, Trümmerfeld, pp. 17–19. Johan Östling - 9789198376814 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/02/2021 08:27:22AM via free access The rebirth of the university 87 Sternberger felt that ‘the problem of the university is, crucially, a general problem that in no way concerns academics only’.6 This was also true of the three powers that controlled occupied Western Germany in 1945–1949. They all identified the university as a key arena for societal transformation. The guiding principles of the Potsdam Agreement – denazification, demilitarisation, and democ- ratisation – would also become those of the German university. Like the educational system at large, the university had to go through a real transformation if it was not to remain an anti-democratic bulwark of reactionary opposition. Ideas as to how this should be done were nevertheless very different among the occupational forces, and the same applied to the degree to which they were prepared for the task. There was no general plan for the future of the university.7 The Americans and the British agreed that the best way to bring about re-education was to reform the traditional German university, preferably in close cooperation with democratically minded German academics. The French for their part doubted that it was possible to change the existing university in the desired manner. Democratisa- tion and re-education were matters of too great importance to be entrusted to the Germans themselves. The French solution was to establish new universities (for example in Mainz and Saarbrücken) and to pursue active cultural policies.8 At the same time, the will of the allies to change the German educational system was only one side of the matter. These brief but important years also saw ongoing intellectual reflection concerning the idea of the university. One central question which engaged 6 Dolf Sternberger, ‘Nachbemerkung’, in Karl Jaspers & Fritz Ernst, Vom lebendigen Geist der Universität und vom Studieren: Zwei Vorträge (Heidelberg, 1946), p. 63. 7 Corine Defrance, Les Alliés occidentaux et les universités allemandes: 1945–1949 (Paris, 2000); Wolbring, Trümmerfeld. 8 Walter Rüegg & Jan Sadlak, ‘Relations with Authority’, in A History of the University in Europe: Universities Since 1945, ed. by Rüegg, pp. 76–84; James F. Tent, Mission on the Rhine: Reeducation and Denazification in American- Occupied Germany (Chicago, 1982); David Phillips, German Universities After the Surrender: British Occupation Policy and the Control of Higher Education (Oxford, 1983); Stefan Zauner, Erziehung und Kulturmission: Frankreichs Bildungspolitik in Deutschland 1945–1949 (Munich, 1994); Defrance, Les Alliés occidentaux; Paulus, Vorbild USA? See also Christian H. Stifter, Zwischen geistiger Erneuerung und Restauration: US-amerikanische Planungen zur Entnazifizierung und demokratischen Neuorientierung öster- reichischer Wissenschaft 1941–1955 (Vienna, 2014). Johan Östling - 9789198376814 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/02/2021 08:27:22AM via free access 88 Humboldt and the modern German university many of Germany’s leading thinkers was how to breathe life into the culturally and academically mangled country. What did the dominant ideals for the university look like? What role did the classic German heritage play when it came to vitalising the university?
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